Closed-loop qos control using charging groups

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus for providing Quality of Service (QoS) gating and control as a function of quota consumption by a group of users is disclosed. A feedback mechanism for QoS gating and control with an Offline Charging System (OFCS) is also provided. In a packet telecommunication network, the Policy Charging and Control architecture is modified to include an Aggregation Interface Function that dynamically collects usage quantum for users in real time. The Aggregation Interface Function proactively seeks user group information and aggregates usage quantum over an entire group to prevent surprise overage charges at billing.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates generally to wireless communication systems andmore particularly to managing Quality of Service (QoS) and gatingcontrol for both online charging and offline charging systems aggregatedacross user groups with a view to contain user expenses.

BACKGROUND

As wireless telecommunication networks have evolved and expanded, therehas been an ever-increasing need to manage the ways in which users arecharged for their wireless device usage. With the advent of smart mobiledevices that are capable of putting a much bigger burden on thetelecommunications network through data access and streaming, there is aneed to provide management of network usage that can control access tothe network in real-time, particularly with regard to data consumption.This includes everything from always-on internet access to streaming ofvideos and applications like games.

Users may pay for their access to wireless networks in both prepaid andpost-paid billing systems. The wireless network includes several logicalfunctions to handle these systems. The vast majority of subscribers usepost-paid billing which is handled by an Offline Charging System (OFCS)that transfers charging information to a Billing Domain (BD) where it isprocessed. Prepaid billing is handled by an Online Charging System (OCS)which may also forward charging information to the BD is a similar way.

With the increasing usage of network resources, service providers (SP)are actively pushing tiered data consumption limits. A tiered planallows mobile device users to get their data at one rate up to a givenquota limit, and at a different rate with a second quota limit. In somealternate cases, the SP may degrade the Quality of Service (QoS) afterthe first quota limit and provide unlimited data consumption with thedegraded QoS till the end of the billing cycle.

While the QoS gating upfront with an OCS is relatively straightforward,there are no easy alternatives for the post-paid subscribers, as OCS isnot in the call-control or data delivery path for them. Additionally,even with OCS, while QoS gating can be effectively applied on individualsubscribers and sessions, there is no concept of applying it on a groupbasis. Examples of the group-based QoS gating would include enterpriseusers on a business usage plan, and members of a family on a personalusage plan.

Therefore, what is needed is a method and apparatus for QoS and gatingcontrol with an offline charging system (OFCS). There is also a need toQoS and gating control as a function of quota consumption by a group ofusers.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method and apparatus forproviding . . . .

In one embodiment, there is provided a method for . . . .

Some embodiments of the above method further include wherein . . . .

Some embodiments of any of the above methods further include wherein, .. . .

Some embodiments of any of the above methods further include wherein . .. .

Some embodiments of any of the above methods further comprise the stepof . . . .

Some embodiments of any of the above methods further include wherein, .. . .

Some embodiments of any of the above methods further include wherein . .. .

Some embodiments of any of the above methods further include wherein . .. .

Some embodiments of any of the above methods further include wherein . .. .

In another embodiment, there is provided a method for . . . .

Some embodiments of the above method further include wherein . . . .

Some embodiments of any of the above methods further include wherein . .. .

Some embodiments of any of the above methods further include wherein, .. . .

Some embodiments of any of the above methods further comprise the stepsof . . . .

Some embodiments of any of the above methods further include wherein . .. .

Some embodiments of any of the above methods further include wherein, .. . .

Some embodiments of any of the above methods further include wherein . .. .

In another embodiment, there is provided an apparatus for use in . . . .

Some embodiments of the above apparatus may further include wherein . .. .

Some embodiments of the above apparatus may further include wherein . .. .

Some embodiments of the above apparatus may be further configured toperform the steps of . . . .

Some embodiments of the above apparatus may further include wherein, . .. .

Some embodiments of the above apparatus may further include wherein . .. .

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Features of example implementations of the invention will becomeapparent from the description, the claims, and the accompanying drawingsin which:

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a Policy Charging and Control (PCC)architecture for a telecommunications network.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a PCC architecture including anAggregation Integration Function.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the Aggregation Integration Function ofFIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating counters within the AggregationIntegration Function.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the embodiment shownin FIGS. 2-4.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Telecommunications networks are increasingly being accessed with userequipment that can send and receive data in addition to the voice callsthat have always been transmitted. The transmission of data puts a muchgreater demand for bandwidth on the network than voice. With theincreasing usage of network resources, service providers (SP) areactively pushing tiered data consumption limits. This means measuring auser's data consumption in real time and changing the user's access tothe network when certain limits are reached. For example, a user mayhave a limit of allowing only a certain number of minutes of videostreaming per day or per billing cycle. Data consumption may also belimited based on the type of application, for example, games. Dataconsumption may also be limited by throttling, which provides a higherbandwidth for a certain period of time then drops to a lower bandwidthwhen a limit is reached.

Group-based QoS control may take many forms. For example, in a family,some members may have less restrictive limits than others. It isdifficult, if not impossible, for the owners of a group account tomonitor the usage of all the members and there is a need to provide thismonitoring in the network itself.

In a preferred embodiment, QoS gating and control is implemented in aLTE (Long Term Evolution) wireless network. In this network, monitoringof network usage is accomplished by the Policy Charging and Control(PCC) architecture 100, shown in FIG. 1. This architecture includes thefunctions of the Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) 102,the Bearer Binding and Event Reporting Function (BBERF) 104, the TrafficDetection Function (TDF) 106, the Policy and Charging Rules Function(PCRF) 108, the Application Function (AF) 110, the Online ChargingSystem (OCS) 112, the Offline Charging System (OFCS) 114 and theSubscription Profile Repository (SPR) 116 or User Data Repository (UDR).Note that FIG. 1 shows the “at home” architecture for PCC for asubscriber. Without deviating from the spirit of this invention, thepresented solution is equally applicable to roaming subscribers as well.

SPR (or UDR) 116 holds subscription information for individual users,which is accessed by PCRF 108 on the Sp reference point. Thissubscription information provides the transport level policies to beused while establishing an IP-CAN session (IP Connectivity AccessNetwork) for a given subscriber ID and a packet data network (PDN)identifier. The subscriber information also provides other attributesassociated with the data session, for example, the QoS Class identifier(QCI). The subscriber ID can be the IMSI related to the subscriber'smobile device. The Sp reference point allows SPR 116 to notify PCRF 108if and when the subscription information has changed, assuming PCRF 108has indicated to SPR 116 that such changes are of interest to PCRF 108.PCRF 108 can also cancel the update notifications by sending acancellation notification to SPR 116.

In addition, SPR 116 also holds subscription data relative to the usagecontrol criteria for Close User Group (CUG) consisting of family/friendsor an enterprise group. Managing data consumption for a CUG can avoidgroup/family bill shock at the end of a billing cycle by poolingallocated thresholds and providing QoS and gating control on a groupbasis instead of or in addition to an individual basis.

For a CUG, the criteria for QoS and gating control, or throttling, areprovisioned at the SPR. It is not necessary for a uniform policy to beapplied in the entire CUG; instead, differential or tiered servicelevels may be allocated within the CUG. Thus, the QoS modulationcriteria can be applied in conjunction with the currently allocated QoSfor individual group members, which may in turn depend on hierarchylevels and usage levels. For example, for members belonging to the sameCUG with identical QCI, the service provider can upgrade QoS or discountthe rate for given QoS; for members within the same CUG but withdifferent pre-allocated QCI, the service provider will grant differentupgrade or discount rates; in the same group, different members (e.g.,parents and children) could be configured with different privileges.Further, it may be decided that even in case of throttling, members witha guaranteed service level at or above a threshold (generally denoted bya QCI or QCI-like identifier) would not experience any downgrade.

PCC architecture 100 works at the service data flow (SDF) level. The PCCrules are established at PCRF 108 and implemented/executed at PCEF 102.When a subscriber initiates a session to an Access Point Name (APN,which is an instance of PDN), PCEF 102 detects traffic and checks if acorresponding service data flow container exists for this traffic. Ifnone is found, then PCEF 102 creates a new service data flow containerfor this session and maintains quota consumption figures for both uplinkas well as downlink. PCEF 102 sends the information on quota consumptionto OFCS 114 upon the arrival of a trigger, which, for the sake ofsimplicity can be stated as a volume-limit trigger or time-limittrigger, while noting that there are several other criteria fortriggering PCEF 102 to inform OFCS 114 about the consumed quota. Whenthe user disconnects from an APN, PCEF 102 once again examines if thecontainer associated with the service data flow can be closed, if indeedthere are no other flows that match the service data flow tallied by thesaid container. When the container is closed, PCEF 102 would inform OFCS114 via an accounting request provided this was the only container beingtracked for the subscriber If there are multiple containers open for asubscriber session, then the closure of a SDF is reported via ascheduled mechanism (e.g., driven by the value set inAcct-Interim-Interval AVP used for tracking session heartbeats). PCRF108 is responsible for rule authorization that selects the QoSparameters with a session. PCRF 108 can also generate dynamic PCC rulesfor service data flows.

FIG. 2 illustrates PCC architecture modified to include AggregationInterface Function (AIF) 202 which provides improved QoS and gatingcontrol according to the current embodiment. AIF 202 interfaces with SPR116 over an AIF1 interface, with OCS 112 over an AIF2 interface, withOFCS 114 over an AIF3 interface and with PCRF 108 over an AIF4interface. Aggregation Interface Function (AIF) 202 will dynamicallycollect user(s) data consumption and aggregate either online and offlinecharging data in real time. The AIF 202 will proactively seek user anduser group info from SPR (or UDR) 116 for billing plans, thresholds andupgrade criteria. According to a preferred embodiment, the AIFapplication proactively checks CUG data to determine whether todynamically alter the charging policies towards PCRF 108.

AIF 202 is responsible for keeping usage quantum tallied on aper-subscriber basis, getting subscriber information from SPR 116 andgroup information from SPR 116 or OCS 112 or other places, getting persession quantum consumption from either OCS 112 or OFCS 114, or both,and modifying SPR 116 information as quota is depleted for a group as aresult of subscriber-level quota consumption during a billing cycle.PCRF 108 may query AIF 202 for aggregated subscriber or group users'usage quantum data; or AIF 202 can push aggregated subscriber or groupusers' usage quantum data to PCRF 108 for policy updating. PCRF 108 willcache subscriber or group users' usage quantum data for ongoing IP-CANsessions.

This is further detailed in several examples given below.

Based on changes to the QCI in SPR 116 due to input from AIF 202, SPR116 provides updates to PCRF 108, (alternatively, PCRF 108 may gatherdata directly from AIF 202 and make policy determination), which in turnmay modify the QoS associated with a service data flow to an end-userterminal, depending on several cases:

Case 1: For sessions that begin at the start of a billing cycle, the QCIassociated with a subscriber-originated service data flow would be asoriginally provisioned in SPR 116 and available at PCRF 108.

Case 2: For sessions that begin at any point during a billing cycle whensome of the agreed upon quota has been consumed, SPR 116, under theinstruction of AIF 202, would modify the QCI to associate a differentQoS with a subscription. This would apply to all members of the groupidentified at AIF 202 from information available at OCS 112 or anotherequivalent place.

Case 3: For subsequent sessions that begin before the end of the billingcycle, the associated QCI for a given group of users may be modified afew more times, depending on the tiered usage pattern a service providerwishes to implement.

Case 4: Sessions that straddle the billing interval may suddenly beboosted to their original QCI from a previously downgraded QoS.

The following examples illustrate some possible uses for the AIFapplication:

Example 1 Changing QoS for Individual User Connection when Daily Quotais Reached

Alice subscribes to a data plan that gives her a daily data consumptionlimit of 1 GB and a maximum d/1 bandwidth of 8 Mbps. When the dailyquota has been consumed, the bandwidth is downgraded to limited to 512Kbps

Example 2 Blocking Certain Services when a Quota is Reached

Bob subscribes to an unlimited data plan, but restricted videostreaming, which is limited to 15 minutes of viewing per day. When thedaily viewing limit is reached, any ongoing video streams are downgradedto 64 Kbps and any new video streaming sessions are blocked.

Example 3 Modifying QoS for all Members of a Group when a Limit of theGroup Quota has been Reached

In this case, Alice and Bob are assumed to be part of the same family,with quota restrictions applicable to both of them as a group. Based onusage data aggregated during the billing cycle, Alice and Bob's quotacould vary based on pre-configured member policy, and incur additionalrestrictions.

Example 4

Handling a scenario where part of the subscriber usage qualified foroffline charging, and another part uses real-time or online charging.This can be the case where all voice calls for the user are post-paid,while all data sessions are pre-paid. Or, when all 9-5 calls arepost-paid, and afterhours calls are pre-paid.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 3 is for a situation when a UE is notroaming. One of ordinary skill in the art would be capable of extendingto situations when a UE is roaming. In case of roaming, AIF 202 may beimplemented across the home and visited network.

An embodiment of AIF 202 is shown in FIG. 3. AIF 202 includes two mainmodules, an Aggregation Module 302 and an Interface Module 304.Aggregation Module 302 provides running aggregates of the quota consumedon a per subscriber basis within each billing cycle. The aggregates arereset at the beginning of the billing cycle for all subscribers.Depending on the quota that is being monitored, the Aggregation Module302 would provide one or more counters 306 to track a subscriber'sconsumption within a billing cycle. In case multiple quotas are beingtracked, the Aggregation Module 302 would use multiple counters. Thishandles the case which can track multiple limits, such as “N1 GB of datadownload, or N2 hours of connectivity to the network, whichever comesfirst”. The counters may be further deployed to handle individualservice data flow, and this would be the case for handling a case like“Unlimited peer-to-peer file transfer, but limit to 1 hour of streamingvideo a day”. Further, counters may have different reset periodsdepending on quotas and durations associated with them. As shown in theprevious use case, a daily streaming video limit is in effect forcertain users. Counter management at the Aggregation Module 302 isdriven by constituted quota as part of the QCI identified at the SPR.The management of the counters is the responsibility of AIF/AggregationModule. This management is done on a per-subscriber basis and eachsubscriber may be associated with multiple counters, potentially eachwith its own span (daily, or certain hours within each day, or weekly,or monthly, etc.).

A second part of the AIF 202 is Interface Module 304. Interface Module304 comprises AIF1, AIF2 and AIF3 reference points to SPR 116, OCS 112and OFCS 114 respectively. Interface Module 304 is necessary to obtaingroup-related information and influence SPR 116 to modify the QCIassociated with a group of subscribers. A group of subscribers mayconsist minimally of 1 subscriber, or may have more than one subscriber.In addition to these, a second part of AIF2 is responsible for queryingthe subscriber grouping information. This information is either held atOCS 112, or at an external repository. In the exemplary embodiment, OCS112 is the owner of this information. When a subscriber starts asession, OFCS 114 and OCS 112 generate Charging Data Records (CDRs).Typically, OCS 112 handles real-time, or pre-paid, charging and OFCS 114handles offline, or post-paid, charging. In certain cases, subscribersessions are handled both by OFCS 114 and OCS 112 simultaneously, forexample, in a situation where a service provider may enforce anenterprise-wide rule for all voice calls to be part of the post-paidbilling type, while allowing streaming sessions only forpre-paid/real-time charging, with or without usage limit implementation.When OCS 112 and OFCS 114, individually or in tandem, generate the CDRs,these are made available to AIF 202, where Aggregation Module 302 eitherinitializes or updates counters 306 associated with the subscriber. Alsoin response to the CDRs, Interface Module 304 issues a group inquiry toOCS 112 on AIF2. OCS 112 can respond to the query with a list ofidentifiers (such as MSISDN, or Tel URI, or equivalent) that belong inthe same group. For instance, if a group G1 consists of subscribers S1,S2 and S3, when Interface Module 304 issues a query for any ofsubscribers (S1/S2/S3), OCS 112 would respond with the set of all threesubscribers {S1, S2, S3}. This tells AIF 202 that the concept of groupis applicable for any of (S1/S2/S3) and the used up quota must becounted against the group usage.

Interface Module 304 also includes a logic engine 308 that works withAggregation Module 302. Logic engine 308 maintains information aboutthresholds associated with quota consumption limits. These thresholdsdrive the behavior of the rules engine such that:

-   -   Upon reaching a threshold-1, AIF 202 communicates with SPR 116        to downgrade the QoS for individual subscriber or the group of        subscribers under a rate plan.    -   Upon reaching a threshold-2, the AIF 202 communicates with SPR        116 to change the pre-emption priority of a service for a        subscriber or group of subscribers under a rate plan.    -   Upon reaching a threshold-3, the AIF 202 communicates with SPR        116 to change the services allowed to a subscriber or a group of        subscribers under a rate plan.    -   Upon reaching the beginning of a billing cycle, the AIF 202        resets the internal counters and communicates with SPR 116 to        restore the subscriber or group of subscribers to their original        subscription levels, which includes the QoS, pre-emption        priority for the services, and a list of allowed services, among        other things. In an alternative embodiment, AIF 202 may        selectively reset counters to abide by different billing cycles        associated with different services received by the subscribers        connecting to different APNs.

In an alternative embodiment, AIF 202 can push aggregated subscriber orgroup users' usage quantum data to PCRF 108 to directly downgrade theQoS, change the pre-emption priority of a service, or change the serviceallowed for individual subscriber or the group of subscribers.

The communication with SPR 116 happens by means of Interface Module 304.Any modifications done on SPR 116 are communicated to PCRF 108, and PCRF108 would in turn dynamically communicate the new rules or the modifiedrules to PCEF 102 for implementation, including both of offline andonline charging. This means that an ongoing session with multipleservice data flows is subject to change via this chain of changes. Italso means that the initial policy decision made at PCRF 108 for newsessions would account for the new/modified permissions when a newIP-CAN session establishment is attempted by a user, either individuallyor as a user within a group.

PCEF 102 optionally sends a notification to the end user with policychanges (QoS, services, etc.), and if the end user has a right tonegotiate the policies and services, PCEF 102 can carry the end-userrequest/input to PCRF 102 to alter the policy.

For use with OCS 112, the modifications in the rules affect the sessionsimmediately. For OFCS 114, because of its near real-time nature, thechanges in the rules come into play in under a minute. In either case,when thresholds are reached in the middle of a session, PCRF 108 wouldbe triggered to modify the operational policy for a user (individual ora group user).

In an exemplary embodiment, AIF 202 may be implemented as part of theBilling Mediation system as further defined in 3GPP TS 32.240. Thestandard model for 3GPP specifications defines interfaces and referencepoints between the billing domain and both OFCS 114 and OCS 112. BillingMediation is part of the billing domain. The logical functionenhancement on the Billing Mediation is Aggregation Module 302 of AIF202. When embodied as an enhancement on the Billing Mediationfunctionality, AIF2 and AIF3 can follow the Bx reference point in partsbecause the Bx reference point is used by OCS 112 and OFCS 114 totransport the CDR files over to the Billing Mediation using standardFTP/FTAM protocol.

Next, the operation of Interface Module 304 and Aggregation Module 302to initialize counters and create group counters will be described inconjunction with FIG. 4.

A set of counters for a Group (G1) of three subscribers is shown in FIG.4. A group is not limited to 3 subscribers but may have any number asdetermine by a service provider. Individual subscribers 402, 404 and 406may each subscribe, for example, to 1 or more feeds 408, 410, and 412.Three feeds are shown in FIG. 4 but any number of feeds would bepossible. A feed may be a video session, or peer-to-peer file sharing,or accessing a particular server on port 80, or using FTP across allservers out there, in other words, a service data flow.

Counter 414 is used to count the data consumption of Subscriber 1 fromFeed 1 and is marked S1C1. Similarly, counter 416 tracks the dataconsumption of Subscriber 1 from Feed 2, etc. Each user is associatedwith one or more counters that maintain usage data for a certain type ofuse or time period. In FIG. 4, counters 414, 420 and 426 may track dailyvideo streaming use, while counters 416, 422 and 428 may track gamingapplications and counters 418, 424 and 430 may track normal web trafficother than video stream and gaming applications, for example. Of note isthe fact that the usage tracking is a derivative of the PCC rulesconstituted by the Service Providers. The uses defined above for thecounters are representative and additional uses would be apparent to oneof ordinary skill in the art.

The AIF counters for a Group also keep track of aggregate dataconsumption. In FIG. 4, Counter 432 counts the aggregate data usage forSubscriber 1, the sum of counters 414, 416 and 418. Similarly, counters434 and 436 count the aggregate usage for Subscribers 2 and 3respectively. Counter 438 counts the data consumption of Feed 1 by allsubscribers in Group 1, while counters 440 and 442 count the dataconsumption of Feed 2 and Feed 3 respectively. Counter 444 provides anaggregate of all counters tracking Group 1. Each counter in FIG. 4 mayhave its own quote limit.

The counters shown in FIG. 4 provide an example of how data consumptionby a group of subscribers can be monitored. More generally, anyarrangement of counters which can track the following usages may beprovided:

On a per user basis, how much has the user consumed on different feeds?(414-430 in FIG. 4)

On a per feed basis, what is the consumption per user basis e.g., howmuch have 51, S2 and S3 consumed from Feed 1, 2 or 3? (438, 440 and 442in FIG. 4)

On a per group basis, what is the consumption across the subscribers ofthe group? (432, 434 and 436 in FIG. 4)

The counters are constructed as per monitoring policies to be used in adeployment by a service provider. Therefore, there is no specificsignificance attached to an individual counter except its need totabulate the individually monitored metrics, which can have service flowlevel granularity at the PCEF level. In an LTE network, the PDN Gateway(PGW) implements the PCEF and communicates via Rf interface with theOFCS, where it reports quota consumption post-facto, or via Ro interfaceto OCS, where quota is granted prior to usage, and re-authorization andquota re-allocation becomes necessary as the granted quota depletes.

The tracking of individual as well as group level consumptions allowsthe AIF/Aggregation to keep track of consumptions that can supportflexible rules. For example, a service provider may ask for curtailingvideo streaming at a group level, but providing for an exception to aspecific user within the group. In another example, one subscriber in agroup may reach a quota of 100 MB consumption in a billing period, butthe service provider can let this subscriber borrow from anothersubscriber within the same group who has not reached a quota.

From AIF 202, SPR 116 and PCRF 108, QoS throttling control is determinedbased on subscriber data and also network conditions, such as:

Subscriber profile and charging rules

-   -   Subscriber dynamic interaction (subscriber may request QoS        remains the same after receiving the notification)    -   Subscriber history data (customer loyalty, like an excellent        customer for a while)    -   Data service type    -   Data tariff type    -   Data volume (like download volume, if download nears the end,        service provider may allow the same QoS without throttling)    -   Network bandwidth (if it is off-peak time, the service provider        may allow the same QoS without throttling)    -   Home/roaming condition    -   Location    -   Access types    -   Switching between prepaid and postpaid    -   Grace period

Some network data is fed from the PCEF 102 to the PCRF 108, including,but not limited to traffic info, location, application/service detectedfor the determination above.

The operation of a preferred embodiment is shown in connection with theflowchart of FIG. 5. In step 502, a subscriber using a user equipmentinitiates a data session, or service data flow (SDF) by accessing anAccess Point Name (APN) or Packet Data Network (PDN). In response, anOffline Charging System (OFCS) or Online Charging System (OCS) receivesan Accounting Request (ACR) or a Credit-Control Request (CCR)respectively then generates a Charging Data Record (CDR) in step 504.The CDR is received by the Aggregation Integration Function (AIF) whichinitiates one or more counters to track the service data flow in step506. The AIF also requests information about whether the UE is part of agroup or not in step 508 and if so, initiates one or more counters fortracking group data usage. The counters are periodically updated duringthe data session/SDF by additional ACRs. The AIF compares all countersto pre-defined thresholds and notifies the Subscriber ProfileRepository/User Data Repository (SPR/UDF) when a threshold is exceededin step 510. Finally, the QoS experienced by the one or more UEs in thegroup is modified in response to the notification in step 512.

The apparatus in FIGS. 2-3 in one example comprises a plurality ofcomponents such as one or more of electronic components, hardwarecomponents, and computer software components. A number of suchcomponents can be combined or divided in the apparatus. An examplecomponent of the apparatus employs and/or comprises a set and/or seriesof computer instructions written in or implemented with any of a numberof programming languages, as will be appreciated by those skilled in theart.

The steps or operations described herein are just for example. There maybe many variations to these steps or operations without departing fromthe spirit of the invention. For instance, the steps may be performed ina differing order, or steps may be added, deleted, or modified.

Although example implementations of the invention have been depicted anddescribed in detail herein, it will be apparent to those skilled in therelevant art that various modifications, additions, substitutions, andthe like can be made without departing from the spirit of the inventionand these are therefore considered to be within the scope of theinvention as defined in the following claims.

We claim:
 1. A method for providing quality of service (QoS) control ina telecommunications network, said method comprising the steps of:detecting a new service data flow (SDF), initiated by a user equipment(UE), in the telecommunications network); requesting informationregarding membership of the UE in a group; initializing one or morecounters to monitor telecommunications network usage by the initiatingUE and any other UEs in the same group; collecting telecommunicationsnetwork usage data by the initiating UE and any other UEs in the samegroup in the one or more counters; comparing the one or more counters topre-defined thresholds; and changing QoS when any pre-defined thresholdof the one or more counters is reached.
 2. The method of claim 1 whereinthe telecommunications network is an LTE network having a SubscriberProfile Repository (SPR) or a UDR, a Policy and Charging Rules Function(PCRF), an Online Charging System (OCS) and an Offline Charging System(OFCS) which interact to provide QoS, gating control and billing datafor subscribers using the telecommunications network.
 3. The method ofclaim 2 wherein the step of detecting a new SDF further comprises thestep of executing the policy defined at a Policy and Charging RulesFunction (PCRF) and executed at a Policy and Charging EnforcementFunction (PCEF), such that an SDF is uniquely identified for usagetracking via establishing a service data container at the PCEF to trackthe uplink and downlink data consumptions and communicating with anOffline Charging System (OFCS) or an Online Charging System (OCS)periodically via sensing an accounting request (ACR) carrying theconsumed quota associated with the container in the SDF.
 4. The methodof claim 2 wherein the step of changing QoS further comprises sending anotification that a threshold has been reached to the SPR or the PCRF.5. The method of claim 1 further including the steps of: sending anotification to a user profile repository when a counter reaches apre-defined threshold; and updating a QoS Class Identifier (QCI) in theuser profile repository in response to the notification.
 6. The methodof claim 5 wherein the pre-defined thresholds are selected by asubscriber and maintained by a service provider of thetelecommunications network.
 7. A method for providing quality of service(QoS) control in an LTE wireless telecommunications network, said methodcomprising the steps of: receiving a Charging Data Record (CDR) from anOFCS or an OCS, said CDR generated in response to an Accounting Request(ACR) or Credit-Control Request (CCR), said CDR indicating a new servicedata flow (SDF) for a first user equipment (UE) on the LTE network;requesting information regarding membership of the first UE in a group;if the requested information indicates that the first UE is in a group,receiving a list of one or more additional UEs in the group;initializing one or more counters to monitor LTE network usage by thefirst UE and the one or more additional UEs in the group; if another CDRis received for the SDF, updating the appropriate counter of the one ormore counters monitoring the one or more UEs in the group; comparing theone or more counters to pre-defined thresholds; notifying a user profilerepository when any pre-defined threshold of the one or more counters isreached; and changing the QoS for the one or more UEs in the group inresponse to notifications.
 8. The method of claim 7 wherein the one ormore counters may be flexibly assigned to monitor LTE network usage by asingle UE in the group via a single SDF.
 9. The method of claim 8wherein one or more of the counters may be flexibly assigned to monitorLTE network usage by a plurality of UEs in the group via a single SDF.10. The method of claim 8 wherein the one or more counters may beflexibly assigned to monitor LTE network usage by a single UE in thegroup to a plurality of SDFs.
 11. The method of claim 7 wherein thepre-defined thresholds are selected by a subscriber and maintained by aservice provider of the telecommunications network.
 12. The method ofclaim 7 wherein the counters are reset at the beginning of a billingcycle.
 13. The method of claim 7 wherein the LTE network has aSubscriber Profile Repository (SPR), a Policy and Charging RulesFunction (PCRF), an Online Charging System (OCS) and an Offline ChargingSystem (OFCS) which interact to provide QoS, gating control and billingdata for subscribers using the LTE network
 14. The method of claim 13wherein the CDRs are received from the OCS and the OFCS, and thenotifying step further comprises sending a notification that apre-defined threshold has been reached to the SPR or the PCRF.
 15. Anapparatus for providing quality of service (QoS) control in atelecommunications network coupled to one or more user equipments (UEs),said apparatus comprising: an aggregation module for receiving anotification of a new or continuing data session by one of the UEs; aninterface module for accessing information which indicates whether theUE which generated the notification is part of a group of UEs andcommunicating the group information to the aggregation module; and oneor more counters which are initialized or updated by the aggregationmodule, in response to the notification, to track the data session andthe information from the interface module, said counters associated withone or more quotas; wherein said aggregation module informs saidinterface module when a counter has reached its associated quota,thereby changing the QoS experienced by the UE.
 16. The apparatus ofclaim 15 wherein the notification of a new or continuing data sessionfurther comprises a charging data record (CDR) associated with asession.
 17. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the interface modulesends a notification to a user profile repository when a counter reachesa pre-defined threshold; and the user profile repository updates a QoSClass Identifier (QCI) in response to the notification.
 18. Theapparatus of claim 17 wherein the pre-defined thresholds are selected bya subscriber and maintained by a service provider of thetelecommunications network.
 19. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein thetelecommunications network is an LTE network further comprising: aSubscriber Profile Repository (SPR); a Policy and Charging RulesFunction (PCRF); an Online Charging System (OCS); and an OfflineCharging System (OFCS).
 20. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the CDRsare received from the OCS and the OFCS, and changing QoS performed inthe SPR or the PCRF.